The New Camelot: Are You Ready?

Get ready, world. Today, a new Camelot will begin. Diverse, with a worldview and DNA to match. Partially media driven, it will turn into an unstoppable force of the imagination (see Madness and Wisdom Of Crowds).

Use this Force for Good, Mr. Obama. Do not give in to the Dark Side, as Bill Clinton did.

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Teddy Anoints the Heir to JFK’s Camelot Legacy

Quoted from The Independent, Dublin, Ireland

By Martina Devlin
Thursday August 28 2008

The long goodbye is under way. Teddy Kennedy’s speech in which he referred to the dream — his brother’s dream — living on in Obama, was nothing less than an anointing, a handover and a formal leave-taking.

The elder statesman of the Democrats, physically failing and with a weakened voice, gave his blessing to the televisual young senator at his party’s convention this week.

Senator Kennedy’s son, Patrick, is a Congressman, while Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, despite insisting she has no political ambitions, has stepped into the foreground during the current presidential campaign. She was a natural as she introduced her uncle at the Democratic National Convention.

…the dream remains potent…only Caroline, forever cast as that little girl in white ankle socks holding her mother’s hand at her father’s funeral, is a more potent symbol.

…Both have given their backing to Obama in a double endorsement, explicitly comparing him to JFK; making an O’Bama of him…

…Every president since 1963 has tried to become a version of JFK, or at least incorporate some of his traits into the role — above all, his charm and communication skills. Republican or Democrat, they all want to market themselves in JFK packaging…

…(Hillary Clinton) doesn’t fit the JFK mold. Obama comes closer, with his constant focus on the need to inspire and unite people…

…(Obama) certainly has the JFK gift for oratory. In one debate, Obama said being president meant “having a vision for where the country needs to go . . . being able to mobilise and inspire the American people to get behind that agenda for change”…

…But can the dream be widened to include a black man? Or is race, rather than ability, the real defining characteristic in this campaign?

Martin Luther King also had a dream. His dream, he said, was for his children to live in a nation where they were judged by their character rather than their skin colour. In a few months, we’ll know if that dream has substance…